Architect Luis Isadore Kahn

1. LOUIS ISADORE KAHN
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“The first thing that an architect
must do is to sense that every
building you build is a world of its
own, and that this world of its own
serves an in situation.”
Submitted To :- Ar. Shalini Diwaker Ma’am Submitted By :- Bhanu Pratap
B.arch. 4th Year
ITM SATP , LUCKNOW

2. INTRODUCTION
• Louis Isadore Kahn (1901-1974), U.S. architect, educator, and
philosopher, is one of the foremost twentieth-century architects.
• Born in 1901 on the Baltic island of Osel, Louis Isadore Kahn's family
emigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1905, where Louis Isadore
Kahn lived the rest of his life.
• Trained in the manner of the Ecole des Beaux Arts under Paul Philippe Cret,
Louis Isadore Kahn graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School
of Fine Arts in 1924.
• In the following years Louis Isadore Kahn worked in the offices of
Philadelphia's leading architects, Paul Cret (1929-1930) and Zantzinger,
Borie and Medary (1930- 1932).
✓ During the lean years of the 1930s, Louis Isadore Kahn was devoted to the
study of modern architecture and housing in particular.
✓ Louis I. Kahn undertook housing studies for the Architectural Research
Group (1932-1933), a short-lived organization Louis Isadore Kahn
helped to establish, and for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
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3. CHARACTERISTICS
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• Louis I. Kahn evolved an original theoretical and formal language that
revitalized modern architecture.
• They reveal an integration of structure, a reverence for materials and light, a
devotion to archetypal geometry, and a profound concern for humanistic
values.
• Eschewing the international style modernism that characterized his earlier
work, Kahn sought to redefine the bases of architecture through a re-
examination of structure, form, space, and light.
• Beyond its functional role, Louis Isadore Kahn believed architecture must
also evoke the feeling and symbolism of timeless human values.
• Louis I. Kahn attempted to explain the relationship between the rational and
romantic dichotomy in his "form-design" thesis, a theory of composition
articulated in 1959.
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4. PHILOSOPHY
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• In his personal philosophy, form is conceived as formless and unmeasurable
,a spiritual power common to all mankind. It transcends individual thoughts,
feelings, and conventions.
• Form characterizes the conceptual essence of one project from another,
and thus it is the initial step in the creative process.
• The union of form and design is realized in the final product, and the
building's symbolic meaning is once again unmeasurable.
• Defined space by means of masonry masses and a lucid structure laid out in
geometric, formal schemes and axial layouts with a strong processional
character of space and images.
• Beaux-arts tradition- Neoclassical architectural style, sculptural decoration
along conservative modern lines.
• Natural Light-Brought architecture to life.
• Modernism.
• To design is to plan and to organize , to order , to relate and to control in
short it embraces all means opposing disorder and accident.
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5. SIGNIFICANT ELEMENTS OF
DESIGN
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✓Kahn wanted to redefine the bases of architecture
through a re-examination of structure, form, space, and
light; since his earlier work abstained from the
international style modernism.
✓Earlier works of Kahn had a traditional international
style of architecture. However somewhere in the middle
of his career, Kahn turned his back on this traditional
approach and pursued innovation by redefining the use
of structure, light, form and space.
✓"Louis Kahn described his quest for meaningful form
as a search for "beginnings," a spiritual resource from
which modern man could draw inspiration“.
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6. ✓Kahn was also influenced by the part of Philadelphia
where he grew up. There were many factory buildings with
large windows. These brick structures were very solid. This
industrial design is apparent in several of Kahn's early
works.
✓Louis Kahn must be credited for re-introducing various
concepts which most of the modern architects had deserted
like centralized spaces, using extensive geometric
principles and demonstrating solid mural strength.
✓Kahn's buildings are admired for outstanding use of
geometric shapes and implementing platonic geometry
principles which creates magnificent experience for the
user.
✓For Kahn it was NATURAL LIGHT that brought
architecture to life, the Artificial light had an unvarying
“DEAD” quality in contrast to the ever-changing
daylight.
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7. ✓Kahn realized the importance of sunlight and was
highly impressed by its usage in Egyptians and
Greek works. Hence Kahn's works demonstrates
wide-scale implementation of sunlight through
different kinds of interesting windows and
openings
✓Kahn was known to appreciate the appearance
and feel of different materials that he used in his
work.
✓Kahn is also known to have used brick and
concrete extensively and his innovative usage of
these materials demonstrated his talent to the
world.
✓Egyptian works also inspired Kahn to use
extensive geometric shapes and hence we find
many of his buildings taking shape of squares,
circles or triangles.
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8. SERVED AND SERVENT.
1. SERVED-WORKING SPACES
2. SERVENT-SERVICE AREAS
In 1954, in his Yale Art Gallery the frame is
concealed while emphasis is placed on the
monumentalization of walls, floors, and
ceilings. The main orthogonal volume is
animated by a cylindrical form housing the
major access stair. Here, the cylinder is the
"servant" and the rectangle the "served" form.
This asymmetrical architecture depends no
longer on the manifestation of structure as
frame but rather on the manipulation of surface
as the ultimate agent for the revelation of light,
space and support.
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9. 12
EXAMPLES OF PROJECTS WHERE
ELEMENTS OF
LOUIS KAHN DESIGN WERE
IMPLEMENTED..
✓Yale University Art Gallery (New
Haven, Connecticut, 1951-1953).
✓Kahn's first architectural masterpiece.
the structural innovations demonstrated by
hollow tetrahedral concrete ceiling and floor
slab system.
✓Kahn's magnificent artistic sense can be seen
from the design of the triangle-shaped staircase
which sits in a rounded concrete shell, defining
the servant space to be distinguished from the
served spaces of the building.
Richards Medical Research Building
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10. ✓Richards Medical Research Building at the University of
Pennsylvania (1957-1965) and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies
(LaJolla, California, 1959-1965) demonstrated magnificent use of
spaces and is the primarily
responsible for the origin of the phrase’ served and servant spaces'.
✓the Yale Art Gallery extension (1951-53) or the Trenton Boathouse in
New Jersey (1954-
59) or even the Richards Medical Towers in Philadelphia (1957-62),
create astonishing effects with the change in light, all possible due to the
intelligent use of space and light.
✓As a result, the user gets an entirely different experience of working in the
building during different times of a day.
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11. 11
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Famous Projects
1. Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban
2. Yale University Art Gallery
3. Salk Institute
4. Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
5. Phillips Exeter Academy Library
6. Kimbell Art Museum
Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban Yale University
Salk Institute
Kimbell Art Museum
IIM Ahmedabad
Phillips Exeter Academy Library

12. INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, AHMEDABAD
ESTABLISHED 1961
TYPE
LOCATION
CAMPUS
EDUCATION AND RESEARCH
INSTITUTION AHMEDABAD,
GUJARAT INDIA
URBAN, 100 ACRES
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13. History
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It was established in 1961 as an autonomous institution by the
government of India in collaboration with the government of Gujarat
and Indian industry. Dr. Vikram sarabhai, a noted scientist and
industrialist and other ahmedabad based industrialists such as Kasturba
lalbhai played a major role in the creation of the institute.
Architecture and design
The campus of iima is dominated by the baked brick style favoured by
the its chief architect, the famous louis kahn. All the structures are
designed to be part of a whole and looks one integral whole. Other
architects who collaborated on the campus include the renowned b. V.
Doshi and anant raje.
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14. Beginning with the overall plan of iim, kahn’s thinking was that to unite the
requirements:-
•Classrooms
•Offices
•Library
•Dining hall
•Dormitories
•Faculty residences
•Workers’ housing
•Market
The previously finalised design for erdman hall recently done by him before
iim inspired him to base his plan on diagonals, with long, interconnected
dormitories block stretching like fingers from the main instructional building,
ending at the edge of a lake.
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15. •Across the lake , houses of faculty were arranged in clusters.
•The diagonal layout had the particular advantage of responding well to the
requirement that the buildings be oriented towards the south westerly breezes.
•Kahn sub-divided the dormitories into 20 bedroom unit.
•Kahn used the local brick which he found was more effective in attaching the
school design to its indian environment.
•Although he had frequently used brick veneer before but he was commited to used
brick as a structural material in ahmedabad as he completely studied its properties
and admitted that his arched forms bore witness to the sincerity with brick.
•The building includes free standing lecture rooms and blocks of faculty office
which stood on opposite sides of a great central courtyard, linked not by corridors
but by shady walkways that offered many places to stop and talk.
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16. •According to kahn the life of learning and
self instruction was also integral to the
design of the residential part of the
complex. For this he closly linked the
dormitories to the main building so that the
dormitory and the school are really one and
are also the places where people can meet.
VIEW SHOWING SHADY WALKWAY
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17. •This thinking generated a wonderfuly rich
arrangement of public, semi private and
private spaces in and around the 18
dormitory unit that group on two side of
the main building.
•The corridors , due to its greater width
could be transformed into classrooms for
the exclusive use of students. These could
become the places where boy meets girl or
where students discusses the work with
fellow student. Thus providing places
offering possibilities in self learning.
VIEW SHOWING DORMITORIES
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18. DORMITORY BLOCK
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•Each four storey dormitory block accomodated
20 private rooms, arranged on the two upper
floors around triangular lounges or tea rooms
that opened to the outside through the giant
circular perforations.
•Kitchen and toilets were contained within a
square tower attach to the long face of the
overall triangular plan.
•The lower floors were entirely devoted to
communal space serving as meeting rooms for
student organisation and other activities.
•The dormitories had a network of small
courtyard interconnected by partially
enclosed ground floor.
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19. EXTERIOR VIEW OF DORMITORIES
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VIEW OF DORMITORIES SHOWING COURTYARD
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•THE 53 HOUSES WERE
ARTICULATED BY KAHN’S
COMPOSITE ORDER i.E. The system of
shallow brick arches and concrete tie
beams that he invented for ahmedabad.
•The houses possesed the variety of wonderful
amenties including enclosed upper floor
terraces and a staggered sitting scheme that
segregated each house from its neighbours.
Due to shortage of funds and
slowness in work, responsibility was
increasingly shifted to b.V. Doshi and anant
raje, a younger architect who worked on the
project for a time
In kahn’s philadelphia office. On kahn’s death,
raje designed the dining hall, executive
education centre and married students
housing, which had been later additions to the
program.

20. ✓The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is an independent, non-profit,
scientific research institute located in La Jolla, California. It was founded
in 1960 by Jonas Salk, the developer of the polio vaccine.
✓The Salk institute is composed of 2 groups of buildings sited on the edge of
a magnificent cliff, with the Pacific Ocean falling behind in the horizon
✓The institute is housed in a complex designed by the firm
of Louis Kahn.
✓Michael Duff of the Kahn firm was the supervising architect and a major design
influence on the structure that consists of two symmetric buildings with a stream
of water flowing in the middle of a courtyard that separates the two.
✓The buildings themselves have been designed to promote collaboration, and
thus there are no walls separating laboratories on any floor.
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21. ✓There is one floor in the basement, and two
above it on both sides.
✓The lighting fixtures have been designed to easily slide along rails on the
roof, in tune with the collaborative and open philosophy of the Salk
Institute's science.
✓According to A. Perez, the concrete was made with volcanic ash relying
on the basis of ancient Roman concrete making techniques, and as a
result gives off a warm, pinkish glow.
✓The 2 buildings are mirrored around an open plaza which forms a strong
linear axis with the Pacific Ocean on one end and the entrance on the other,
thus highlighting and framing the landscape rather than imposing itself on it.
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22. ❑The structure that consists of two
symmetric buildings with a stream of
water flowing in the middle of a
courtyard that separates the two.
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23. ✓A diagonal wall allows each of the thirty-six scientists using the studies to
have a view of the Pacific, and every study is fitted with a combination of
operable sliding and fixed glass panels in teak wood frames.
✓Originally the design also included living quarters and a conference
building, but they were never actually built.
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✓In the courtyard is a citrus grove containing several orderly rows of
lime trees.
✓The original grove contained orange and kumquat trees which were
then replaced with lime trees in the 1995 grove refurbishment.
✓The plaza is stark (unpleasant or sharply cleared impossible to avoid),
finished in travertine marble, without anything in it except a single small
linear channel of water running down the centre.
✓Yet, it is complete, the simplicity being highlighted by the magnificent
backdrop of the sky and the ocean with the seagulls fluttering in the distance.

24. ✓The buildings are 6 floors in height with 3 levels housing the laboratories while
the other 3 houses the services and utilities.
✓Each laboratory block has five study towers, with each tower containing four
offices, except for those near the entrance to the court, which only contain two.
✓Kahn used concrete, teak, lead glass and steel as his
material palette.
✓Made in exposed concrete, the walls are unfinished showing clearly the
shuttering marks and also the tie rod holes.
✓The imperfections formed in the concrete surface during casting were left as
such and were not covered up and finished, maintaining the integrity of the
material.
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25. Alfred Newton Richard’s research centre..
✓The Richards Medical Research Laboratories, located on the campus of
the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., were
designed by architect Louis Kahn.
✓It is a research institute for biomedical sciences.
✓It has Greek cross planning.
✓It is made in two segments.
✓It has clustared planning.
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26. ✓Each laboratory tower has eight floors, each of which is a 45 foot (13.5 m)
square that is entirely free of stairs, elevators and internal support columns.
✓Each tower is supported by eight external columns that are attached to the four
edges of each floor at "third-point" locations, the two points on each side that
divide it into three equal parts.
✓That placement resulted in four column-free cantilevered corners on each
floor, which Kahn filled with windows.
✓The support structure of these towers consists of pre- stressed concrete
elements that were fabricated off-site and assembled on-site with a crane.
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27. Structure:
Louis isadore kahn 27
✓In contrast to buildings in the style of International Modernism, which
typically had structures of relatively light-weight steel frames that were
often hidden behind glass walls, the laboratory towers have concrete
structures that are clearly visible and openly depicted as bearing weight.
✓The structure was engineered by August Komendant, a pioneer in the use of
pre-stressed concrete.
✓The structure of the Richards building is composed of 1019 pre-stressed
concrete columns, beams, trusses and related items that were trucked in from
a factory, assembled with a crane like children's blocks, and locked into place
with post-tensioning cables running in all three dimensions, something like
an old-style toy that is floppy until its parts are pulled together tightly with a
string.
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28. ✓In line with his belief that structure should be made visible, Kahn exposed
these structural parts on the building's exterior and in the laboratory
ceilings.
✓For the post-tensioning to be effective, the prefabricated concrete
parts had to be precisely dimensioned and perfectly formed.
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Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Kahn.
2. https://www.architectural-review.com/architects/louis-kahn/louis-kahn-
the-space-of-ideas.
3. https://www.archdaily.com/tag/louis-kahn.